+ Refused/At the Drive-in Reunion
Two of my favorite bands, At the Drive-in and Refused, are reuniting to play Coachella. Hopefully both of them will tour because I don’t want to fly to California – or pay for Coachella tickets – to see them. I go back and forth on how I feel about these bands doing reunions because a) it’s viewed as heretical for a punk band to reunite to cash in, and b) it’s rare for a reunion show to top past performances. On the other hand, it’s great that I’m going to hopefully get the chance to see two incredibly influential bands and why should it matter that they are reuniting since they both make great music.
Here’s an article that sums it up pretty well.
+ Louis CK Interview
Here’s an interview with comedian Louis CK that’s worth reading.
Speaking about his first encounter with the Conan O’Brien writing team:
Then I was so nervous, and Dino Stamatopoulos and all the other writers were saying, “You’re the new writer here,” and I was like, “I haven’t been hired yet,” and Dino was playing games with me, saying, “Congratulations, you’ve been hired,” and I was like, “I haven’t even been interviewed yet.” I hung out with him while I was waiting, then I hung out with Smigel and Conan, who were in this really weird position, that in two months from now, they were going to be on the air to replace Letterman, a complete unknown replacing this massive…they started pitching ideas to me for their opening, and they had just started talking about this open where Conan’s really excited to go to work. Everybody goes, “Good luck, you’d better be as good as Letterman,” they keep saying that to him and he doesn’t care, and he goes into his dressing room and puts his head in a noose and they knock down the door and he has to go on. He told me he was going to put a gun in his mouth, and I was the new guy, and I said, “Are you really going to do that?” and they were like, “You think that’s too dark?” and I said, “You can’t do that, that’s vicious, that’s really hard for people to take.” I talked them out of it, and it was like they were asking me for permission. “Really, is it too much?” “Yeah, guys, that’s crazy.” A gun in the mouth, Jesus.
+ Pianos/Xerxes & Pianos/Touche Tours Announced
So we announced two tours today. One with Xerxes in Canada and the northeastern US and the other with Touche Amore & Goodtime Boys in Europe. I’ll post the Europe dates when they are finalized.
Pianos/Xerxes Tour Dates:
Feb. 24 – The Studio at Webster Hall – New York City
Feb. 25 – The Space – Hamden, Ct.
Feb. 26 – 242 Main St. – Burlington, Vt.
Feb. 28 – Cafe L’ Agitee – Quebec City, Quebec
Feb. 29 – L’escogriffe – Montreal, Quebec
March 1 – Mavericks – Ottawa, ON
March 2 – Hard Luck – Toronto, ON
March 3 – The Mansion House – St. Catharines, ON
March 4 – Lounge @ London Music Hall – London, ON
March 6 – Sugar City – Buffalo, NY
March 7 – Carabar – Columbus, OH
March 8 – Bangarang’s – Covington, Ky.
March 9 – Smiling Moose – Pittsburgh, Pa.
March 10 – Altoona Masonic Temple – Altoona, Pa.
